In October 2022, Air Cte dIvoire placed a fascinating wide body aircraft order, with plans to even introduce a first class product! I know I’m probably more interested in this order than anyone else outside of Cte dIvoire (and perhaps even anyone inside the country!), so by all means skip this post if you don’t…
Continue reading: Air Côte d’Ivoire Airbus A330-900neo Joins Fleet, With First Class!
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
There are also plans to fly the a339 to Beirut, Lebanon as there is a large and generally wealthy Lebanese population in Côte d'Ivoire.
Odd how YUL is not planned despite seemingly hosting the biggest Ivorian community on the continent.
In terms of hard product, F, J and PE look better than what AF offers on the A380 which flies to Abidjan.
HF's product looks solid, hope they'll be able to maintain it properly... And also hope that the soft product keeps up. The configuration does look quite premium and it worries me... Maybe one of the objectives is to snatch some traffic from AES countries (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger) from the likes of Turkish, Brussels and RAM (as Air France is banned from operating in those countries, with Niger even restricting its airspace to French aircrafts altogether).
Beirut would be a nice route as mentioned by @Fassiri with the large and wealthy Lebanese community in Ivory Coast.
I think the routes rather reflect political priorities (e.g. IAD, BRU) ... This is often one of the difficulties airlines in Africa are facing, because you cannot operate a route profitably, if only a few politicians and diplomats are using it (even if they might fly in F/J).
AF retired its a380 in 2020. They offer the most updated 777 cabins to ABJ which will feature the new La Premiere suite shortly.
Ben------Give me first class if possible every time[luckily i can afford it!] but you mention a lack of physical separation from business------ there needs to be a solid divider!------- i want a TOTALLY first class 'bubble' with thoughtful soft and hard product.